Our club’s Annual Day at the Races is Thursday August 14. We’ll return to the Il Palio restaurant, in the Turf Club, high above the track. Gentlemen must wear a sport coat, and ladies should wear a dress or other smart casual wear. No jeans, please. This year we’ll have table service rather than a buffet. Remember that this event is ONLY for members. Email Marty Peters to sign up to attend. The gates open at noon and you can pick up your ticket at our table right near Will Call.  Thank you as always to our honorary member, Joe Harper, for hosting this special event.  Click HERE to see more details at the event page. 

Michael Clark was born in the Washington DC area as the son of a dentist and a vet and grew up in New Jersey.  His parents were from Ohio, and Michael chose to attend Ohio State University where he studied industrial systems engineering.  He began his career working for Rockwell before shifting to the insurance industry. His work for AETNA took him to Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, San Franciso and Philadelphia.  He moved back to Kansas City to run sales for Delta Dental Kansas, eventually becoming CEO.  He stayed within the dental industry, but shifted focus to buying dental practices.  In 2013 he was recruited to San Diego to work for Argen, which specializes in dental alloys, digital dentistry and dental laboratory resources.  Michael helped the company expand by adding over 500 employees with global locations.  He retired in 2023, but got bored with retirement and started an employee benefit brokerage firm. 

Michael enjoys weightlifting and has competed in more than 50 natural body building competitions. He also likes off-roading in his Jeep.  His wife Andrea taught for the San Dieguito School District and is now retired.  His son Max played rugby at Torrey Pines High School and then played for Ohio State.  He’s now plays for a San Diego Legion feeder team.

Michael had been a Rotarian in Kansas City, missed it, and reached out to our club in February 2024. Since he joined, Michael has jumped right in, playing a key role in organizing our Gallop4Rotary.   

Here's a quick summary of our club's activities over the past few months. 

We celebrated Toni Mecaro’s successful term as Club President on June 10, 2025. Matt and Janice Kurth hosted Toni’s demotion party at their home, and the theme followed that for the Rotary year: The Magic of Rotary. We were entertained by magician Skyler King and of course Jim Davies gave one of his patented talks that revealed the timeline of events that followed Toni’s interview at the Jallikattu contest in January (click HERE to watch the video of her interview- Toni's part starts around 1:35). Toni joined the “tiara club” comprising women who’ve served as club presidents and then passed the giant gavel to Pat Caughey. Congratulations to Susan Maronde and Beth Davidson on being named Rotarians of the Year!

In late April, our members hosted 10 Rotarians from District 3000 in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Our guests had a packed 10-day trip that included tours of the Monarch school, Midway, Old Town and the Safari Park. They also attended the Lakeside Rodeo, a Padres game and enjoyed performances at the UCSD Wow festival. The women in the delegation cooked a fabulous Indian feast at Janice and Matt Kurth’s home, and the tour wrapped up with a delicious paella dinner hosted by Philippe and Dugan Lamoise. We’re grateful to Janice Kurth for all her work coordinating both halves of the exchange and to Suzy Wagner, Don and Donna Fipps, Kathy Reed, Klaus Gubernator, and Sharon Schendel and Jim Kohn for opening their homes to our guests.  

On April 26 we had our annual Rotarians at Work Day. Our group was large, strengthened by not only our members, but members from the Rotary Club of Del Mar Solana Beach, Rotary Club of Downtown San Diego, and University of San Diego Rotaract (click on the link to view their Instagram post with more pictures from the day) who worked alongside students from St. Augustine and Cathedral Catholic High Schools on projects at the Nativity Prep Academy campus. Nativity Prep Alumni returned to help as well. Thank you to Marty Peters for organizing, and for the Mona Lisa sandwiches!

 

Karen Lare, Chair of the Del Mar Lagoon Committee spoke at our March 6 meeting about the San Dieguito lagoon. The Lagoon committee works to preserve and enhance the areas of the San Dieguito and Penasquitos Lagoons that lie within Del Mar. Nearly 50 years ago, the San Dieguito Lagoon was designated as a sensitive resource area that qualified for protection under the Coastal Act. Later, focus grew to encompass the full watershed in the region with groups like the San Dieguito River Valley Land Conservancy and the Friends of the San Dieguito River Valley forming and working with government entities like Joint Powers Authority to acquire and manage lands in the newly-designated San Dieguito River Valley Park. A key milestone was the selection of the lagoon for a mitigation restoration plan that was part of permitting for the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. Restoration work began in 2006 and mitigation is ongoing. Now, the health of the lagoon is robust, and the area provides a range of recreational activities with the Dust Devil Trails east of the I-5, and areas that are part of the Coast to Crest Trail that will eventually include 71 miles from the shores of Del Mar to Vulcan Mountain near Julian.